Arsenal earned a hard-fought 2-1 win over West Ham. They may have gotten the three points, but not everyone impressed in the game.
The Hammers deserved more but top teams scrape out the wins even when they have been outplayed and that is what Arsenal did yesterday.
Here is the Arsenal player rating.
Bernd Leno – 5
So shaky, dropped a ball that should have been an easy catch. Didn’t help to calm the nerves of his defenders.
Rob Holding – 5
Not a good day for Arsenal’s defenders against Antonio and he was one of the bad ones. Should have done better for their goal.
Gabriel Magalhaes – 7
Another solid display from him. Blocked everything he could except the goal. Can easily pass for Arsenal’s best player on the night.
Sead Kolasinac – 4
Surprise starter because of Kieran Tierney’s injury and did very little in terms of helping the attack. One absolutely terrible cross late on summed his night.
Hector Bellerin – 5
Struggled with West Ham’s pace and directness at the back and was hardly helpful going forward.
Dani Ceballos – 5
One of his worst days in an Arsenal shirt. Redeemed himself by supplying the assist for the winning goal.
Granit Xhaka – 6
Had a stable but unspectacular influence on the game. Fine pass to set Kolasinac free, but his cross was terrible.
Bukayo Saka – 7
Fine pass to help Aubameyang set up the first goal and yet another one to help Ceballos set up the second goal.
Willian – 5
Poor on the night. Arsenal fans will hope that this kind of performance will not be frequent.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – 6
West Ham succeeded in keeping him out of the dangerous areas and he was reduced to trying to set teammates up. Good cross for the first goal.
Alexandre Lacazette – 6
Scored the important first goal, but like most of his fellow attackers, he was not allowed to do much by West Ham.
Substitutes
Nicolas Pepe – 5
Didn’t do anything of note apart from helping to wind down the clock.
Eddie Nketiah – 6
He was hungry for a goal when he came on and he got one.
David Luiz – N/A
Weak links yesterday -saka Ceballos and Xhaka everyone else was having to make up for the mistakes .
I counted atleast 10 unforced errors in the first half from the 2 midfielders ,Xhaka picked it up in the second half but it really did show are needs for reinforcements in the midfield .
Gabriel my MOTH .
@Dan kit: We saw the same match. I do like Xhaka personally because he tries hard and have some qualities but he does not belong in the premier league sorry. Prone to too many mistakes because he does not process fast and his feet are too slow. Thank God we were not playing Liverpool or City ot Leichester otherwise we would have been down 3 or 4 zero because of his erroneous passes. Same goes for ceballos and his gifts to the opposition. Gabriel will prove to be a steal if/when he improves defending high balls.
the spine/core of the team is only 50% build…..
Coordination and teamwork is only half way there….
If we keep the team together we can be great next season
cant expect the team to win by 5 or 10 goals every game…..
A win is still a win
Next season? Dude you are patient bit not the fan we need of we are to push for top 4 this season
Really disappointing to see all the stick Leno is taking in previous to threads (although agree with his poor rating from yesterday).
The Emi versus Leno debate is over. Arteta made his choice. Time for Gooners to support the shirt. Reading some earlier posts and you’d be forgiven for thinking that had we kept Martinez we would go the whole year without conceding.
I swear, you’d think we’d go the whole season without conceding if we had kept Leno.
Someone said we should’ve sold Leno instead, what he did, what he does, what he can do should be sweapt down the drain all because our backup GK had 3 great months!! 3!! Compared to Leno’s 2 years.
The annoying fact is Martinez is gone yet fans are getting on Leno’s back.
I tell you, wait till fans get back to the stadium and see how they’ll damage the confidence of some of the players
I said that Eddie and rightly so. Now my question to you again which you didn’t respond to in the previous thread. Were you scared or not each time we got a ball in from set pieces? Maybe we should have given Leno or kolasinac or any player that played poorly a pat on the back then since it’s now considered being “negative” when we criticise a player’s poor performance. No personal abuse on the player whatsoever just on the poor performance, I’ll praise him if he plays brilliantly like I constantly do for Martinez, if Ozil gets back in the team and performs brilliantly, I’ll be among the first fans to praise him. And I don’t support booing players in stadiums either but you’d be a fool to say fans are not allowed to criticise a player’s performance amongst themselves and on a platform like this. You won’t see me going to their pages to criticise them.
Sorry Kstix I went offline immediately.. You want the truth? I wasn’t scared or worried. Goalkeeping is the least of our problems FFS!!
Scared of set pieces and crosses? Really? That’s always been a problem, always conceding from set pieces, which is why Arteta brought in a xet piece coach.
Drop this agenda and argument, Martinez is gone and that’s it.
I’m not gon be whining because our backup GK left.
Once again, Goalkeeping is the least of problems we have at this club.
Stop this discussion always trying to make Leno look like a poor GK.
6 Months ago, none of you gave a f##k about Martinez or if we sold him and everyone kept thanking Leno for saving us… Funny how the story has changed to Martinez is the better GK and Leno is the poor one
Eddie I think you are missing the point, this is not about a keeper being a good shot stopper it’s about given your defense confidence, yesterday Leno came out of his box to receive a pass only to give it straight back to cresswell, as good as Leno is, he’s not a world class goalkeeper, a world class goalkeeper does not makes mistakes almost everytime.
Now that is just you deceiving yourself Eddie. Did you see the set piece that came in and hit the bar or the one that Antonio didn’t react to on time. West ham could have beaten us easily yesterday and like Ken said in a previous article, they would be gobsmacked at how they ended up losing a game that was ripe for the taking. I’m glad we got lucky and dug out a win and overall play was poor but Leno doesn’t fill me with confidence and like I said he’s a good goalkeeper, he has put in many impressive performances but he’s too error prone. For the first time in years, when martinez played, I was filled with confidence anytime the opposition played a set piece. In the 3 months he’s played, not once has he made an error leading to goal. You want to know how many Leno made last season alone prior to his injury?
Keep on building the agenda bro…
Leno in his first season made 5 errors.
Last season he made only 2 errors.
Last season no goalkeepers made more errors than Ederson and David De Gea but keep on building the Leno=Error agenda and adding mistakes from his first season while ignoring mistakes from the overall seasons of other goalkeepers.
I’m yet to see City fans calling for Ederson’s head for haing joint most errors but no, Arsenal fans must sing about Leno’s error.
Arsenal fans would point out errors he made since he came to the league and avoid errors other goalkeepers made since they got to the EPL.
Who is actually deceiving himself between you and I?
7 errors leading to goal not 7 errors, very misleading wording there.
Sorry I left that out that “Keyword”, make your research Ederson and De Gea tops the list for last season.
If you’ll talk about Leno’s 7, then dig out all the errors since De Gea came to the EPL, dig out all the errors since Bravo and other Goalkeepers made their EPL debut.
You guys only have strength to dig out Leno’s past errors
dont be so triggered bro, wasnt a dig at you, I never once said we sold the wrong keeper! Was just pointing out it was errors leading to goals as it’s a big difference. I already knew about de geas errors etc, but they dont play for arsenal so its irrelevant.
Rory 👍👍
My bad
No worries eddie thank you 👊👊 were all on the same side COYG!!
Thumbs up Eddie, many forget too soon. The club and indeed the manager has made their choices regarding the goal keeping position some of us are in support whereas others are against, but what is most important is the support the team gets that’s the motivation they all need. For me i will keep supporting the manager and the team until i find a better reason to criticize them.
besides its too early in the season to start with all these negativities.
I just hope the keeper we are buying will be good with crosses, Leno has always been poor in dealing with set pieces, he has always been good with stopping shot but like I keep saying you in this league, you need a keeper who is good with crosses and Leno is not that keeper. And if we are allowed to criticize Xhaka Ceballos bellerin Pepe, I don’t see why we can’t do the same thing to Leno.
Lenohappy, every single player on the pitch yesterday misplaced or two passes.
Even you know that, from Leno down to William and Lacazette up the pitch, including Gabriel.
So why is the name Leno popping up with mistakes?
This is the 2nd game of the season, the whole team were shire, so really is it fair to keep talking about Leno’s misplaced pass? Or the fact that he kept on punching out crosses?
Like I did, GK and Leno is really the least of our issues it we keep on hammering about how he’s not good in the air. Is that even an issue with the team right now?
I’m just saying give the guy some break, he just returned from an injury and this is his second game back, I’m not against criticizing players, Leno included, but then when people keep talking about how we should’ve sold Leno, kept Martinez because Leno is this and that, tell yourself honestly is that simple criticism?
Even though Martinez is gone and both GKeepers are living their best life currently, Martinez happy where he is, Leno happy right here and still we still draw comparisons about who should’ve stayed or left? Come on bro, even you know better
I will tell you this, you keep saying is goalkeeping a problem in a league where alot of teams depend on set pieces for goals, you say it’s not a problem that our goalkeeper can’t deal with set pieces properly? We have many problems we need to work on but don’t tell me that is not one of them.
Eddie: Because for some fans there must be be a sacrificial lamb always. If it is not Ozil, it is somebody else. Like you point out, this is a team sport and players excel together and suck together. For instance, Leno would have never made a mistake if the ball didn’t come to him.
Fans Are going to try and find faults now with Leno because some preferred Martinez they want to feel they were right ,I saw no complaints before Leno got injured now all of Sudden the The goalkeeping experts have come out and have put him
Under the spotlight ,that’s fans for you ,I’m just glad we don’t get to pick the team ,I’m happy to go along with whatever Arteta picks .
God bless you Dan kit, you have said my mind, some fans always want to proof a point that they are right and Arsenal mgt are wrong and because they didn’t listen to their advice or opinion, they will be looking for their mistakes and attack them…. Don’t be surprised that some are waiting for us to lose two or three games in a row in order to attack Arteta and proof that they are also right about him…. So that’s human nature some never wish good things for you even if they claim that they are your friends….
True that, we easily turn against our players and constantly look for a scapegoat.
Giroud, Iwobi, Ozil, Mustafi, Xhaka, but since two left, Ozil doesn’t participate, Mustafi and Xhaka improved and performing well under Arteta there must be a new sacrificial lamb.
It only makes sense to pick the GK with the most errors in his first season but reduced the errors as the one.
I’ve said this before, watch how Leno will constantly get the stick anytime he concedes a goal or puts a foot wrong because Arsenal’s favourite son was sold to Aston Villa
This issue will keep going on if we don’t use the money as an addition to buy partey and aourer..the squad generally was really poor yesterday right from the get go but still felt Auba played better cos he was defending and still trying to attack at same time
Martinez is better than Leno
MK, let it rest. Regardless of anyone’s views the opinions that count have seen Emi Martinez leave and pursue his future career at Aston Villa. We should all wish him the best and get behind Berndt Leno, Matt Macey (if he stays) and Runar Runarsson.
Saka deserves 5 or 6 while Ceballos 6 or 7, the later was moving and trying more while Saka was cold and barely made some movements.
Not the best performance for Arsenal as a team but we won the 3 points. I think MA should focus more on creating chances by player movements in narrow paces, without the ball “like the second goal”. Willian and Ozil won’t deliver much if the other players – without the ball – are not making the right moves.
Yeah the later was moving more and trying side ways n backward passes. Saka was MOTM. He played two brilliant through balls to setup the goals. He was not at his best today but still did way more then Ceballos (who we should send back to Madrid) I hope we sign Auaro so we have that creative spark in midfield. Elneny is better in midfield then Ceballos at least his pass complete ratio is better and he defends better as well, on creative side both struggle.
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We expected too much but forgot its a derby. I mean westham had lost to newcastle 2 nill on opening day. What do we expect? A calm performance from a team that is yet to win a game at the emirate in over 15yrs!
Need i say, moyes alongside the parrot mourinho are tipped to be running for first to be sacked.
I rather we play bad and win than go sexy and draw or loose.
End justifies the means..
👍 Also up against a better midfield than Fulham.
Major mistake by Arteta letting Emi go.
Goalkeeping is not all about shot stopping, if you can organise your defence and control your area the chances you need it are minimal. Keep fluffing crosses, spilling and passing to deffenders under pressure and they become nervous, things get worse. Whole team gets worse and your shot stopping stats go up…
Why moaning over spilled milk. Will you love to keep a keeper who is not confidence in his ability and wanted to be given to him on a platter of gold. The coach said each of the keeper have to fight for the position but Emi was not willing.
And he got offered a four year contract at £65k per week!
I wish arteta could read my messages..auba needs to play in the middle in some game not all d time he has to play on the wings its painful seeing him on the wings making crosses for who, wasn’t impressed yesterday but thank Goodness we got the maximum 3point
Yesterday was one of those bad days any team could experience. It was almost a nightmare for the Arsenal team, but luckily & due to rugged determination instilled by Arteta, the boys rose to the occasion to ship in the 3 points at stake. As Arteta himself acknowledged, it would have been a different result some few months before. Congrats to the team.
Honestly, watching the game, especially in the first half, I realized that it wasn’t just us the fans that thought we’d rout them. Arteta started very aggressive with Bellerin damn nearly playing as a forward. Look at the goal they score. Bellerin is at the arc of their box when they steal the ball and counter.
We were not helped by the inexplicable personal errors players were making. Xhaka hitting blind passes, Ceballos , Laca getting his feet tangled but westham showed up with the right tactics. They played a high and compact line ensuring they kept us out of their box. The whole game all I was thinking we needed to go route one,but we kept passing. It didn’t matter if we had dribblers , they’d never have been able to get through. Just look at when Pepe came on. He beat 3 men on the dribble, started down the line and they were still able to isolate him.
The sad thing for me was how long it took for us to realize that we just had to play long over the top. You have Granit Xhaka in the team. If the short interchange is blocked, give him the long passing option. HE WILL FIND YOU .
Credit to West Ham for playing so well. That was a hard faught 3 points. Unfortunately, we made it more difficult for ourselves yesterday with some very questionable individual performances! And yes, Leno was one of them, Eddie. I didn’t want Emi to make way for a fit Leno and when he was sold I knew the club had thier favourites already cut out! Emi was the better keeper in my opinion. Add the very average performances and usual sloppy passing and backwards passing to the mix. Yep, that made it easier for a determined West Ham! We will need to improve by a massive amount against Liverpool for sure.
Gabi 7??? Just because he is the new guy at club does not mean he is good all the time. He was bad in the air, went underneath the ball and misjudged the flight of ball at least 5 times. He almost gave away a penalty for hand ball in area. He was as shaky in air as Leno was. He should get 5 same as Leno. Stop over hyping our players and then throw them on the ground all of sudden like we fans normally do.
This rating is laughable..no player deserve more that 6. And the players worth that 6 has to in this other.
Ceballos 6
Gabriel 6
Lacazette 6.
The rest is 5 and 4.
Saka was awful lost possession, couldn’t pass the simple pass. Yes he started the attack that led to the 2 goals but that was about his game last night. He was out of position for their goal.
Gabriel played well considering how atrocious kolasinac was wtf!! Who scouted that guy? He was abject, couldn’t do anything at both ends of the pitch. Very disappointing, he single handedly unsettled that back line.
You can all see the difference between a hungry player who wants to push for a starting place that Eddie for you. You can see the contrast in attitude between him and Nicolas pepe. 1 is hungry while 1 is not bothered.
But then again not all game you will play perfect, the most important thing is the result. Coyg
Admin, giving Saka 7… I think you’re not being fair to yourself.
Saka was very poor especially in first half without any defending or progression of the ball. He was the second worst player so deserves a 5 along the other players.
Bellerin was the worst player on the pitch hence deserves a 4.
Lacazette deserves a 7 as he was by far the best player for us.
Leno…. I simply have no comment on him. Arteta especially is to blame for Martinez going because of his indecision. How he chose this Leno guy to be his first choice is just beyond me.
Leno is modern gk, who good at distribution ball , intercept out of gk area(sweeping), reflexes and shoot stopping. While emi is old school gk, who good at areal command, jumping, handling, reflexes.
Since arteta style is build attack from gk, its definitely need a moden gk. That also why pep use ederson (who have same traits as leno) as his gk.
These ratings. Do people think that football is walking in the park. So people expected WH to let Arsenal do as they please. The team played well. They’re not robots. I’m very happy for Saka if it was not for the goal that we conceded which caught him out of position I would have given him 8 but for contributing to all the goals he gets a 7. Most people underrate our midfield! Why? These guys can do a lot more than we think. Cabbelos was making West Ham lose their coherence with his changing of ball movement, to extent that when they (wh) got the ball could not do much damage to us. So please love the win as it is a win. Truely WH came well prepared to ripe us apart but their dominance counted for nothing. There is no Sweet LOSS.
What was Ceballos doing??? Oh yeah causing confusion among West ham players by giving them the ball most of the time, passing side ways and backwards. They thought he is attacking CM put in there by Arteta to create attacks but that was a bluff…hahaha. how some fans come out with excuses some of theost funny excuses for players.
Sorry Gundaily, but West Ham won the midfield battle, but was let down by poor finishing.
Let’s be honest guys, we did not have one player who played remotely well yesterday.What concerns me more long term is the lack of pace and energy in our back three and central midfield.That weakness will not be resolved by the introduction of the likes of Luis ,Mustafi or Chambers but thankfully, AMN ,Tierney and Saliba can redress the problem to a certain extent.To me West Ham looked quicker to the second ball and I was left hankering for Declan Rice to anchor our midfield.Not much chance of that happening,or is there?
I wouldn’t say no to Rice, Grandad. Chelsea are after him…. surely he won’t stay at West Ham?
Grandad Tell me where does that leave Pepe £72 million he has to start showing something or did we overpay for him
Willian must play in the middle,infront of xhaka and elneny.That allows Pepe to come in.Ceballos is shaky,so is Kola.Right now we dnt have a midfield to talk abt,if we dont buy PARTEY and AOUR,we forget top 5
You and all who are calling Willian to play in middle need to realise he is no Santi Carzolla, he has always been kind of players who thrives on his pace and runs. He does not have twinkle feet, not two footed, can not control the pace of game, does not have a pacing range of a CM or AM etc moral of the story why play some one out of position at the end of his career when he does not posses the ability to perform those duties. Play to his strength that’s what MA is doing, that’s why you see him on wing like he use to play for Chelsea.
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Hate to say it our fans are so fickle we won’t the game we took three points when I think last season we would have gone on to loose that game. Yes it was not the best performance but getting into Leno when he is our number 1. Support what we have be the encouragement for them to do better instead of slating them and being the reason there are scared to take a risk or make a mistake. The truth is we will not be blowing away every team in the league and for me personally gridding out a result From London a game like that shows what the team have to learned more than a 3-0 win away to newly promoted side. Support the team and be happy in the face of victory.
Nice name 😜
That 1-0 back in March was also a scrappy affair. Maybe we should’ve given West Ham a little more credit! They’ve got some decent players who were always going to cause us problems and needed to up their game after last week. I’d rather be feeling like this – disappointed with the performance but winning than feeling like my nephew, who is gutted at them playing well and losing!!
Time to out this game behind us and start thinking of Leicester….
And it was a London derby! Two in a row for two wins.
Emi’s gone, end of! He’s not coming back… no point keep harping on about it. MA has stuck with Leno…
Macey to play against Leicester?
Very true Sue. Let’s support our playing 11, shall we?
Exactly that, Sid 👍
Exactly! Great point sue we have had many a game where we have dominated played well n still Ben on the end of a bad result. Grinding out wins is all that’s important lest support the 11 MA selects and hope for the best season we have had in a while COYG
True! It showed good character and belief from the players. I rate this win high, just like our win against liVARpool last season.
Spot on, Saltnpepe 👍🙂
Ahaha! Some may call it a hard fought 2-1 victory but for me the result just gave me Emery deja vu. An unconvincing performance typical of an Emery team like the 3-2 wins vs Vitoria and Aston Villa last season. As for the Martinez vs Leno drama, personally I feel Martinez was the superior keeper in ever way. He’s moved on though, so it’s time for us to move on too. Whether it was a mistake to keep Leno over him there is nothing we can do about it now other than just moan about it.
All this talk about Leno being a great shot stopper masks the fact he does not command his area, elects to punch more times than catch the ball and his playing out from the back scares the life out of everyone. But yes, Martinez has gone now and we need to forget about him but just could be the biggest mistake we have made.
Current Arsenal team does not have a player who can run with the ball at his feet. Martinelli does that but he is injured! Arsenal badly needs someone like Helb to complete the team.